"'National champions' is really a relative term. It's an opinion," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "Until there's a playoff system, that's all it's going to be."

Certainly, the Utes have made a statement to the country with two perfect seasons in five years.

"The reality now is that Utah can go to a BCS game and go undefeated," Hill said. "It's not a dream. It's a reality."

Due to contracts, the BCS appears to be set in place for several more years. However, starting with the 2008 season and over the next couple of years, the BCS is evaluating and determining if another conference — like the Mountain West — should be given an automatic bid to the BCS games beginning in 2012.

In '08, Utah may have helped changed the perception of not only its program, but the MWC in general.

"The Mountain West Conference, I believe, took a gigantic step forward this year — gaining the respectability of the nation and hopefully gaining an automatic bid from the BCS, as a conference, in the near future," Whittingham said.

In 1984, there was no BCS. Back then, the bowls had rigid tie-ins to particular conferences, and setting up a No. 1 vs. No. 2 title game was virtually impossible. BYU's mythical 1984 crown caused an uproar among the major conferences and the major bowls. It marks the last time a team from a non-BCS conference has won a national title in football.

For BYU, a perfect season, coupled with a perfect storm of circumstances, enabled it to claim the championship. The Cougars opened the season by upsetting then-No. 3 Pittsburgh on the road, though the Panthers ended up turning in a losing season. BYU didn't play another ranked team the rest of the year. The Cougars, then members of the Western Athletic Conference, were contractually tied to the Holiday Bowl, where they beat a 6-5 Michigan team.

Unlike the '04 and '08 Utah teams, BYU was denied the chance to prove itself on a big stage. The Cougars, who ended up as the only undefeated team that year, were crowned champions by the slimmest of margins (1,160 votes to 1,140 for No. 2 Washington in the AP poll). It can be argued that the '84 Cougars played a role in the creation of the current BCS system, which was in part created to prevent a so-called also-ran conference from claiming the national crown again.

"So many people were upset about us winning the championship. They wondered how a team from a conference like that could win it," Bosco said. "There was such a big outcry, people felt something should be done. It's similar to the outcry now."